Researchers at ETH Zurich have announced a breakthrough long considered impossible: they have created a sequence of mathematically provable, perfectly random numbers. While this may seem simple at first glance, in practice, even the highest-quality dice, coins, and modern random number generators contain slight biases. This is reported by Ixbt.com reports .
A team led by physicists Renato Renner and Andreas Wallraff proposed a method called "randomness amplification" to solve this. The experiment utilized two superconducting quantum bits (qubits) cooled to near absolute zero and connected by a 30-meter transmission line. The qubits were in a state of quantum entanglement, where the measurement result of one object is instantly linked to the other.
The core element of the work is an improved version of the Bell test. This experiment allows verifying that results are determined by the system's true quantum nature rather than hidden classical factors. Although researchers intentionally used imperfect generators to select measurement methods, a special algorithm processed the data to extract mathematically ideal randomness.
According to Renner, scientists can now not only generate random numbers but also verify their randomness from a physical perspective. This is not just a statistical approximation, but a result that will not lose its randomness property regardless of future analytical methods.
The practical significance of this discovery is immense. Modern encryption systems, digital signatures, cryptocurrencies, and blockchains rely on the quality of random numbers. If there is even a slight predictability in the source of randomness, it weakens the entire security system. The authors compare their development to atomic clocks: if atomic clocks are the standard for time measurement, quantum generators will become the standard for randomness in future digital infrastructure.
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